Will ‘Top Gear’ Hosts Come Back To The Show?
The BBC is currently trying to lure back Top Gear hosts Richard Hammond and James May with a big money offer of £4 million, or just over $6 million in U.S. dollars. The Mirror is reporting the Top Gear pair will refuse the offer.
A source close to the presenters said, “Flattering though it is to be offered huge sums there’ll be no going back. It wouldn’t feel right and their heart wouldn’t be in it. They’ve always said they come as a team and that hasn’t changed. They are all very excited at the prospect of having total editorial control over their new show, to make it and get it distributed. It would be groundbreaking and also incredibly lucrative. They would stand to earn much, much more than they would with the BBC.”
The team the source is talking about is Hammond, May, and Jeremy Clarkson. As reported on earlier at the Inquisitr Clarkson was fired from Top Gear back in March because of a physical incident involving a Top Gear producer over a steak dinner. The new show the source refers to is one that is likely to be made for Netflix which could be named House of Cars, a riff off of the Netflix hit House of Cards.
The former Top Gear trio is currently on an international tour billed as Clarkson, Hammond and May Live. Tour dates are set for as late as November, so it may be a long time before you are able to catch the guys on TV, unless of course you are catching reruns of Top Gear.
One thing seems certain: No matter how all this shakes out, Top Gear will never be the same. As a source told the Mirror even if May and Hammond were to come back to Top Gear, the show would have a very different feel.
“The amount of work required to get Top Gear back on the road again is just sinking in amongst executives. It is a huge task. Richard and James could make it work as a duo – but the idea of different guest presenters every week is seen as a non-starter. Top Gear will have to be re-invented – undergoing a total re-boot and re-branding.”
Former Top Gear presenter Angela Rippon told the Guardian that the show now has a chance to reach a broader audience.
“If the programme is going to ‘reinvent’ itself and reflect its audience, this is absolutely the right time to introduce a bright, well-informed and opinionated woman broadcaster.”
Would you give Top Gear a shot with new presenters, or is a new show with the former Top Gear trio more up your alley?
[Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]
